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I LIBRARY OF :ESS,I 



UNITED STATES I C A . | 



RELIEF FOR EAST TENNESSEE. 



MEETING AT COOPER INSTITUTE, 

Thursday Muening, March 10, 1864. 



ADDKESS 



HON. N. G. TAYLOR, 



(Late Representative from East T<eKtuissee,Ji 



REPORTED BY A. F. WASHBURTON, STENOGRAPHER. 



NEW YORK : 
W«. C Brtant «& Co., Printers, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Libertt. 

1864. 



tS3l 



PRELIMINARY CORRESPONDENCE. 

New York, Saturday, Feb. 20, 1864. 
The Hon. N. G. Taylor, former Representative from East Tennessee : 

Dear Sir, — The undersigned having been made aware of the important 
mission with which you are charged, under the approbation of the Governor 
of Tennessee, namely, the relief of the suffering Union men of that State, 
are desirous that you should make a statement of your mission and of the 
condition of that loyal but unfortunate population to the people of this 
city, to the end that they may be enabled to participate in the wide move- 
ment which is now making to alleviate their sufferings. 

They, therefore, earnestly desire that you will name a day when it will 
be convenient for you to address a public meeting to be held in New York 
for this purpose. 

Respectfully, your obedient servants, 
W. E. Dodge, Adrian Iselin, 

Jonathan Sturges, RoBr. B. Roosevelt, 

Wm, T. Blodgett, Hiram Walbridge, 

Peter Cooper, George Griswold, 

George Opdyke, John C. Green, 

Charles Butler, Morris Ketchum, 

Wm. K. Strong, S. B, Chittenden, 

John Austin Stevens, Jr. 

New York, Monday, March 7, 1864. 
Gentlemen, — I have the honor to own receipt of your kindly letter of 
Feb. 20, inviting me to name an evening upon which I may address the 
people of the city of New York upon the unhappy condition and suffer- 
ing of the Union men of East Tennessee, and solicit from your often taxed 
but always generous liberality, some aid and relief to my unfortunate 
neighbors and friends in that section. 

I have just returned from a tour through the Eastern States, where I 
have been received with the utmost kindness, and where my efforts have 
met with success. 

I will have the honor of addressing the citizens of New York on Thurs- 
day evening next, 10th inst., if agreeable to you. 

Thanking you in the name of my countrymen for your kindness, 
I have the honor to remain your obedient servant, 

N. G. Taylor. 
Messrs. W. E. Dodge, Jonathan Sturges, William T. Blodgett, Peter 
Cooper, George Opdyke, and others. 



4 

New York, March 9th, 1864. 
Major-Genl. A. E. Burnside : 

General, — On the evening of Thursday, 10th inst, Hon. N. G. Taylor, 
former Representative from East Tennessee, will address the citizens of 
New York with an appeal for relief for that loyal but unfortunate section. 
Many of our best citizens participate in this movement and are interested 
in its success. Your recent command in that section, and your defence of 
its soil from the rebel, invasion have indissolubly connected your name with 
that of East Tennessee ; and it seems therefore particularly appropriate that 
you should accede to the request which I have the honor to make in the 
name of the gentlemen who have requested Mr. Taylor to deliver an ad- 
dress, namely, to preside over the meeting ; and with your permission, I 
will so announce. 

Truly and respectfully, 

Your friend and servant, 

John Austin Stevens, Jr. 

Pursuant to the foregoing correspondence, a meeting of the 
citizens of New York was called at the Cooper Institute, on 
Thursday evening. 

Gen. "W. K. Strong, in a few introductory remarks, explained 
the occasion of their disappointment, in the absence of Gen. 
Burnside, as President of the meeting, and read the following 
letter : 

Fifth Avenue Hotel, March 10, 1864. 
John Austin Stevens, Jr., Esq. : 

My Dear Sir, — On my return from New Haven this afternoon, I found 
your kind note asking me to preside at the meeting to be addressed this 
evening by the Hon. N. G. Taylor in behalf of the suffering people of 
East Tennessee, and am very sorry that an important engagement in refer- 
ence to my official duties, will prevent me from being with you at the 
opening of the meeting. It is possible that I may be able to join you dur- 
ing the evening. You know how much sympathy I have for the brave 
and noble people of East Tennessee, and how much I admire their un- 
swerving loyalty — and how much I desire to see their present wants sup- 
plied by the more prosperous loyal sections. They deserve aid, and I am 
Bure they will receive it. 

Thanking the gentlemen of the Committee for the honor done me by 
asking me to preside at your meeting, I remain, 

Very truly yours, 

A. E. Burnside. 



Gen. Hiram "Walbridge was nominated and elected a9 pre- 
siding officer. After thanking the meeting for the honor done 
him, he said : 

GEN. WALBRIDGE'S SPEECH. 

The patriotic citizens of this great commercial metropolis 
have so often and so generously bestowed their liberality since 
the commencement of the rebellion, that now, in appealing to 
them in behalf of the suffering Unionists of East Tennessee, it 
may not be inappropriate to state the circumstances of their 
present condition — the causes which have produced it, and the 
hope they entertain of again speedily occupying their once 
proud position in the galaxy of States that constitute the Ameri- 
can Republic. 

Located in the geographical centre of the old Union — there, 
amid their native fastnesses, and in the mountains, they have 
never yielded to the demands of the traitors of the so-called 
Confederacy, though often pressed by overwhelming numbers 
to renounce their allegiance to the Federal Union. 

Twenty-five thousand of the choicest sons of East Ten- 
nessee, in the liberating armies of the republic, have stripped 
that community of its defenders, leaving their aged sires, their 
defenceless mothers, and their unprotected daughters, to the 
mercy of those formerly their neighbors and friends, who have 
yielded to the mad and wicked spirit of secession. A common 
humanity should have dictated that a population thus depend- 
ent for protection on the gallantry of those who have been tem- 
porarily in power there, should have caused those who boast of 
their chivalry to avoid the atrocities which they have freely com- 
mitted, and at the mere recital^of which the cheek turns pale. 
But this foul spirit of secession is alike deaf to the claims of 
humanity or the ties of consanguinity. This, however, need 
not excite surprise. A people who have voluntarily determined 
to overthrow the fabric of constitutional government must, in 
advance, have qualified themselves for every species of atrocity- 
known to human annals. 

These facts, however, only augment our responsibility to con- 
tribute whatever lies in our power to alleviate their sufferings, 



and restore them to their original condition as it existed before 
the rebellion began. It is indeed hard, that in the third year of 
the contest — with over twenty millions of population from which 
to draw onr resources and strength — we should be now under 
the necessity of alleviating the famishing wants of the Unionists 
of East Tennessee, and defending them against the brutality 
and outrages of a confederacy which, from the beginning, never 
numbered more than six millions of rebel population. 

This portion of Tennessee was originally settled by emi- 
grants from the " Old North State," who inherited their convic- 
tions of popular liberty from the men who fought at "King's 
Mountain," and passed the " Mechlenburgh" declaration of in- 
dependence. From 1774 to 1784, " North Carolina" exercised 
legislation over this territory. But in the succeeding year of 
1785, that government becoming distasteful to those hardy and 
vigorous pioneers, they were unwilling to yield to the imperious 
demands of the slave legislation of the parent tSate, and they, 
consequently, organized themselves into a separate political 
community, under the name of "Franklin." And until 178S 
they maintained a separate political existence, whose distin- 
guishing characteristics were political equality and universal 
freedom. This territory was, however, subsequently re-annexed 
to " North Carolina," and by her ceded to the General Govern- 
ment. And such was the increase in her population and the 
development of her resources, that after being merged into a 
territorial organization with "Middle" and "West Ten- 
nessee," they were admitted into the Union as a State in 
1796. 

This inherent love of liberty, early engendered in her first 
distinct political organization, has ever since continued to exer- 
cise its legitimate influence on the sentiment of her people. 
And while other sections in surrounding States have become 
more and more thoroughly imbued in their idolatry to slavery, 
the population of East Tennessee, catching inspiration from 
the invigorating breezes of their native mountains, have ever 
remained true to the cardinal principles on which the theory of 
the Federal Government is based. 

This dominant love of freedom seems to be indigenous to 
every mountain region throughout the habitable globe. And 



tins has frequently been illustrated in English history, when the 
vestal fires of freedom were only kept burning amid the High- 
lands of Scotland. And to day, surrounded by the tyrannies 
and despotisms of Europe, a gallant and chivalric people, whose 
territory, reaching above the clouds, penetrates 

" Where fields of light and liquid ether flow," 

maintain their love of freedom pure and spotless as the snow 
upon their native Alps. 

In every contest of the past where the honor, integrity and 
renown of the United States have been involved, no people 
have displayed greater alacrity in upholding and maintaining 
the Government of the United States than the people of East 
Tennessee. 

Subjected to a terrible conscription by the confederates when 
in possession of that section of the country, it is almost entirely 
destitute of white male population. The slaves of that region 
having also sought protection within the Federal lines, the 
women and children are without the common necessaries of life. 

As each rebel conscription has been enforced in this section 
of the Union, the loyal men of East Tennessee, shrinking 
from the turpitude of fighting against a government which, in 
the past, had guaranteed to them so many blessings, have fled 
to their native mountains, preferring to encounter the wild 
beasts of the forest rather than their still more inhuman neigh- 
bors who have yielded to the foul spirit of secession. 

The importance in which the region has been held by the 
rebels as a strategic point for military operations is thoroughly 
illustrated by the tenacity with which they have struggled to 
hold their grasp upon it. They fully realize that the sentiments 
of its population are thoroughly imbued with an inherent love 
of constitutional freedom. Consequently, the rebel authorities 
have exercised over it from the first the most tyrannical rule, 
hoping to crush the spirit of its free people. 

But all these circumstances convince us that this part of Ten- 
nessee should have been occupied, at the commencement of the 
struggle, as a basis for military operations in the South. And 
it is now, as it was in the beginning, the dictate of wise states- 



8 

manship to develope the Union sentiment of the South by sap- 
porting and strengthening the Unionists in those localities where 
they are still true to the General Government as in Texas and 
East Tennessee. And the neglect to do this has led to a merciless 
rebel conscription in those localities, which has resulted to the 
advantage of the rebels and the absolute destruction of the 
Unionists in those States. 

These Southern Unionists are the residuary legatees of the au- 
thority of the General Government, and the whole power of the 
nation should be exerted to shield them from persecution and 
to restore them to their former proud position. 

Every day's experience demonstrates that it is the dictate of 
wisdom to put forth our overwhelming strength, and bring this 
rebellion to a spedy and immediate close. Whatever cause 
protracts the war still further, ruins the South ; and it is kind- 
ness to every section of the country that all our energy should 
be devoted to bring this rebellion to a triumphant close. The 
government, then, brought in harmony with the designs of its 
original founders, will enter upon a new career of greatness and 
renown, while it recognizes truth, justice and political equality 
as the foundations of its future prosperity and strength. Let us 
not forget that the moral world has its laws, as fixed and eternal 
as those which regulate the material universe. And the nation 
or statesman that disregards this great truth in the administra- 
tion of human affairs must, sooner or later, reap the conse- 
quences which result from their violation. 

In every community there are two opposing forces struggling 
for supremacy, — one a temporary expediency that looks to per- 
sonal objects and immediate action — the other founded on moral 
conviction and regulated by Christian principle; and statesmen 
and nations are to be measured by the manner in which they 
are controlled by one or the other of those opposing forces in 
the administration of human affairs. "We are too apt to measure 
results by the standard of our physical existence. And this it 
is, and this alone, which causes so many of those who are called 
to exercise power and influence in public affairs, to regulate 
their conduct by the immediate circumstances which surround 
them, instead of looking beyond the present, and basing their 
action and shaping their policy upon the eternal principles of 
justice and right. 



9 

I shall now have the pleasure, fellow-citizens, of presenting 
to you one of the gifted sons of East Tennessee — a citizen for- 
merly- one of its ablest representatives in the National Congress. 
Wherever the honor, interest or renown, not only of Tennessee, 
but of the Union, was concerned, he was their able, eloquent 
and gifted advocate. Driven from his country, by the persecu- 
tion of the rebels, he comes to represent to you the sufferings 
of his countrymen. And should fortune call any of us to his 
section of the country, to stand there as he stands here to-night, 
may we then be able to exclaim, as he exclaims here, "These ! 
these are my countrymen, and this ! Oh this ! is my country L" 
I have the pleasure to present to you the Hon. N. G. Taylor, 
who will now address you. 



ADDKESS OF HON. N. G. TAYLOE. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies, Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens, — I ana 
hereto-night, at the instance of kind citizens of this great me- 
tropolis, to address you in reference to East Tennessee, whose 
representative I have the honor to be on this occasion. I re- 
gret that it is not my privilege to congratulate myself, and 
you, upon the prosperity and happiness of my people ; that I 
cannot tell you, our homes are undisturbed and quiet ; that the 
peace, and tranquillity, and integrity of the family circle is still 
unbroken ; and that there are no sad signs of sorrow, no grating 
sounds of distress and war echoing among our mountains and 
valleys. But such are the desolating fruits of rebellion, such 
the blighting results of internecine war, that I can tell you no 
such pleasing stories. 

I do not come here to your great rich city as a beggar, nor as 
a representative of beggars ; for a population that has always 
been too proudly patriotic to bow the willing neck to the heart- 
less tyranny of a despotic Southern oligarchy, is still too proud, 
although beggared by this war, to cringe, as a beggar, and so- 
licit alms of Northern brethren. (Applause.) If you will cast 
your eye upon the map of the United States, and draw a line 
upon its face, from Cincinnati to Charleston, S. C, and another 



10 

from New York city to New Orleans, I think you will find 
that their intersection will be near the centre of East-Tennessee, 
which is that portion of the State of Tennessee lying east of the 
Cumberland Mountains. It comprises thirty one counties, and 
contains 10,000 to 15.000 square miles, and a population of 
300,000 persons. 

This is a mountain region essentially, and is one of the most 
elevated within the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. 
It is almost surrounded by lofty mountains, which isolate it 
from other sections, and make it territorially a State of itself. 
East Tennessee is indeed a most interesting region, and richly 
deserving of your warmest sympathies, and your kindest re- 
gards, if not your profoundest admiration. "It consists of the 
broad valley of the magnificent river (Tennessee and its tribu- 
taries) which traverses it, from northeast to southwest," for more 
than two hundred miles, "with a varying width of from fifty 
to seventy-five miles — and of the slopes of the mountains, which 
separate it, on the north from Kentucky, on the west from 
middle Tennessee, and on the southeast from North Carolina 
and Georgia— a beautiful valley — between beautiful enclosing 
hills, fertile, many of them, to their summits ; sparkling with a 
hundred tributaries to the noble stream which forms its prin- 
ciple feature." From northeast to southwest this region is 
traversed, for most of its length, by Powell's, Clinch, Bays, and 
House Mountains, whose transverse spurs and ridges reach far 
down into the intervening valleys — giving variety and boldness 
to a scenery, unsurpassed for loveliness and beauty on the 
American continent. Our streams are fed by ten thousand 
clear, bright, pebbly bottomed rivulets, whose cool, laugh- 
ing waters gush from perennial fountains, away up on the 
mountain sides, and dance merrily on in their mission of love, 
awaking the echoes with the melody of their sweet voices. The 
axe has cleared many thousands of fertile acres, in the valleys, 
and along the slopes of the hills— which yield their generous 
fruits to the hardy farmer's toil— but the rich mountains still 
shade themselves with a boundless profusion of forest verdure, 
as if to shut out, and hide from man's obtrusive gaze, the 
wilderness of rich grasses and flowers, there " born to blush un- 
seen." 



11 



Stand here with me, on the bank of this clear, rapid little 
river, and I will show you a landscape that God made for man 
to love and enjoy. There is the spring under that venerable 
willow — and its pellucid waters are dancing along, to their own 
music, in their serpentine track, through grassy meadows where 
flocks are feeding ; to the right, is the great wheat-field already 
rich with the verdure of spring ; beyond is the forest, vene- 
rable with age, but strong enough yet to breast the storms 
of a hundred years ; above the forest, there, before you a 
mile or more away, is the first ridge of the mountain, be- 
hind which is the cascade whose silvery waters have nour- 
ished whole generations of echoes ever since the flood ; still 
above, far away in the blue distance, rises the grand old 
mountain itself; on its sides and slopes the primeval forest still 
spreads its giant arms, as if to shield the millions of beautiful 
wild flowers, that flourish at its feet, while on its summit, above 
yon belt of mist, 6,200 feet above the sea, a green grassy 
prairie meadow, fringed with fir trees, spreads its beautiful 
bosom to the caresses of the sun. In this mountain-girt realm, 
there are no dismal swamps, and stagnant, putrid lakes, whence 
malaria springs to poison man — no miasm taints the air — these 
find a home in less congenial climes. The pestilential winds 
from the damp lowlands of the south and southwest, filtered and 
cooled as they sweep over the lofty crests of our mountains, 
breathe life and health on all our sunny valleys. Our moun- 
tains abound with ores of lead, zinc, copper, silver, and iron ; 
bituminous coal, and many varieties of marble, are found 
in various localities. Salt has been discovered, and there are 
mineral waters, of great medicinal value, in almost every 
county ; and we have water-power enough to operate all the 
machinery of the continent. 

This country, these valleys, these mountains, are the homes 
of 300,000 people, whose misfortune it has been to incur the 
displeasure of their Southern brethren. Not that they differed, 
essentially in their sentiments and feelings upon the great 
national questions that had heretofore, to a greater or less ex- 
tent, sectionalized the opinions of the country ; not that in their 
sympathies, interests, education, or associations, they were severed 
from their brethren surrounding them, — but that they cherished 



12 



a different appreciation of the Government of the United States, 
which was committed to them in trust, for the benefit of pos- 
terity ; not that they loved their kindred less, but their country 
more. [Applause.] 

It is true that many of our kindred of the South are very 
angry with the people of East Tennessee, and they hate us with 
great bitterness, and of late have done us great injury. Yet, 
while the remembrance of this fact is a source of great pain to 
the people of East Tennessee, they are consoled by the reflec- 
tion that this animosity and hatred have been engendered by 
her devotion to the union of these States, by her adherence 
to the farewell advice of the father of our country, by 
ber persistent refusal to take part or lot in any mad effort for 
the overthrow of our common government — a government 
which has always protected its citizens, which has never in- 
fringed a solitary right of an individual or a State of this Union, 
from its beginning down, and which our people believe it to be 
their religious duty to hand down, as a priceless and inestimable 
heritage, to their children and children's children. [Loud 
applause.] 

But it is not true that East Tennessee has ever been unfaith- 
ful to the Southern people, either in principle or in fact. We 
believed, and we declared, that the interests and institutions, 
the happiness, prosperity, and rights of „the people of the South, 
were bound up with and in the Union, and that they could 
never be preserved outside of the Union. We declared this 
upon the rostrum and at the hustings, — everywhere, from 
Carter to Shelby, — from the eastern limit of the State to its 
western boundary upon the Mississippi river. Inexorable his- 
tory has vindicated the correctness of our judgment, and demon- 
strated the weakness and fallacy of theirs. Let the universal 
prosperity that swelled every channel of their vitality — com- 
mercial, political, industrial and social — at the beginning of the 
war, and within the Union ; and the ruined commerce, the 
paralyzed industry, the bankrupt treasury, the dismembered 
families, the broken-hearted widows, the orphaned children, 
the desolated homes and new-made graves of the South without 
the Union, attest the unutterable folly of those who execrate the 
people of East Tennessee, because they would not affiliate with 



13 

treason. [Applause.] Could those who made tins war have 
beee made to taste alone its bitterness and feel its woes, it had 
been well. Then East Tennessee would have escaped. But, 
alas! the concentrated fury of the war has rolled over her inno- 
cent bosom, and she is in ruins to-day, having nothing left her 
but pride, poverty, and patriotism. 

Her people are the descendants of the pioneer heroes of 
North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New 
Jersey, with here and there a solitary individual from other 
Northern and Southern States, and, like their illustrious ances- 
try, they have never learned how to be false to the Constitution 
and the Union. The pioneer heroes of East Tennessee left their 
daughters their wives and their old men, to defend themselves 
against a savage foe, in the great war for independence, while 
they buckled on their armor and struck for our infant nation- 
ality upon the sides and slopes of King's Mountain, under the 
lead of Shelby and Campbell. In the war of 1812, they fought 
gallantly on many a battle-field, and triumphed under their 
own immortal Jackson at New Orleans. [Applause.] In 1832- 
'3, when Nullification threatened with the sword to cut the Gor- 
dian knot of our Union, and when the illustrious Jackson ap- 
pealed to the Eternal to witness that the Federal Union must 
be preserved, a united Amen swelled in the hearts and broke 
from the lips of the people of East Tennessee as from the lips of 
one man, and they were ready to sacrifice their lives in defence 
of the integrity of our glorious government. Her stalwart sons 
were mingled in the front ranks of the Mexican war, and they 
poured out their blood freely with their fellow-citizens of other- 
States at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, at Monterey and Buena 
Vista, at Chepul tepee and Cherubusco, and helped to swell the 
shout of victory as our gallant legions marched in triumph into 
the Grand Plaza of Mexico. 

Thus, in peace and in war, in the cabinet and in the field, at 
the hustings, at the bar, and in the Senate, in public assemblies 
and private circles, in the homes of the rich and the cabins of 
the poor, the heart of East Tennessee has ever " kept time to 
the music of the Union." [Loud applause.] This devotion is 
not a mere sentiment, it is a passion ; nay, more, it is a princi- 
ple on fire, ever burning, never consumed ; it is a heritage of 



14 

the blood, transmitted from sire to son, imbibed with mother's 
milk ; stereotyped upon the heart, and rivetted in the soul. 
[Applause.] "Witness the sad history of the past three years ! 
The first test of the Union sentiment of East Tennessee, 
upon the existing difficulties, was applied in February, 1861. 
The form of the question then was, " Convention or No Con* 
vention," and the electetion of representatives or delegates by 
the people to that Convention, in case it should receive a 
majority in its favor at the pending election ? The true test in 
this election was the aggregate majority of those who vindicated 
the Union cause during the contest. The questions before the 
people were amply discussed from the rostrum, and when the 
day for election came, the State of Tennessee, casting a vote of 
130 or 110,000, gave a solid majority of 64,000 opposed to 
going out of the Union, and of that number, East Tennessee 
gave 34,000 in favor of the Union, and 7,000 against it. [Ap- 
plause.] In June, when the question was put in a different 
form, " Representation or No Representation" East Tennessee 
again recorded her vote, by overwhelming majorities, against 
the great treason. Then came persuasions, soft and sweet ; 
syren eloquence, dropped like the dews of Hermon into the 
ears of our people of the mountains, and our boys were promised 
exemption from the battle-field if they would only acquiesce 
and let the storm roll on. Well, fellow-citizens, the August 
election came, for a Governor, members of Congress, and rep- 
resentatives to the State Legislature. By this time, the bayo- 
nets of the Southern Confederacy bristled all over the State of 
Tennessee. Our great men in the middle and western portions 
of the State had felt the force of the storm — among them, the 
man whom I was proud to serve in 1860, as the representative 
of the Union sentiment of our State in conjunction with my 
illustrious friend Mr. Everett — I mean John Bell. He, and 
the Ewings, Cave Johnson, JSTeal Brown, and a host of men 
whose hearts had been true to the Union until the storm rose, 
now felt their knees smite together and their hearts fail 
them, and the fury of the tempest swept them all off into the 
Southern Confederacy. Our boys in the mountains saw that 
storm. Efforts were made to keep us from the ballot-box. We 
were told — " The State having now gone out of the Union, if 



15 

you dare to go and vote for the men who are in favor of the old 
Union, we will see that you are taken care of. We have places 
prepared for men of your sentiments, and the first thing you 
know you will find yourselves under the gallows, or in the 
loathsome dungeous of the Southern Confederacy." The storm 
came up, from the west and south, and the east of us, — dark, 
gloomy, gathering blackness with every hour. We heard the 
muttering thunders in its bosom, we saw the livid flashes, as 
they illuminated us in our isolated position. But, when the 
election came, when the rest of the State was falling off and 
going into treason and the Southern Confederacy, East Tennes. 
see gave a large vote for the Union candidate for Governor, and 
elected her representative to the Congress of the United States, 
and her representatives to the legislature, by overwhelming 
majorities. [Applause.] 

Then came violence to individuals : the cutting and shooting 
down of Union flags ; but still, East Tennessee breasted the storm, 
she still held out faithful ; and by-and-by the Confederate Con- 
gress, as the war waxed hot and hotter, passed a conscript law ; 
and every man in the community, from eighteen to thirty-five 
years of age, was enrolled by officers in every neighborhood, 
appointed for that purpose, and notified to rally at a given time 
and at a given point, to enter active service for the defence of 
the rebel cause. Then the exodus, already begun, swelled to 
hundreds and thousands. Our young men had resolved that 
they never — no, never — could be persuaded or charmed by 
blandishments or flattery, or forced by bayonets, to strike at the 
heart of the mother that bore them. [Applause.] ~No ! but 
they went to their homes, kissed their mothers' lips and received 
their blessing, they received the fond farewells of their fathers, 
their sisters, their wives and their little ones, and then went 
forth, exiles from their own loved land. There was no promise 
of premiums or bounties to them ; there was no hope of wealth, 
happiness and prosperity in the distance; but they left their 
homes in the darkness of the night, and ascended the rocky 
sides of the mountains, 150 or 200 miles from Kentucky, where 
they hoped to find relief. Ragged and in tatters, with their 
feet unshod and bleeding, they took the pathless ridges of the 
mountains, in the darkness of the night, aided by the silvery 



16 

rays of the moon or the dimmer light of the stars; and in the 
daytime, sought the deepest, darkest gorges of the mountains, 
that they might find shelter and rest until the coming shadows 
of another night enabled them again to pursue their perilous 
way, that they might find liberty and the flag of their country, 
under its folds alone to fight, and, if need be, there to die. 
[Prolonged applause.] 

Regiments, companies, and squads of infantry and cavalry 
were now distributed over the length and breadth of the coun- 
try, for the purpose of hunting down and shooting the escap- 
ing conscripts. Everywhere they went, and as they went, they 
entered the houses of the people, searching for arms and am- 
munition, and thus the people of the whole country were rob- 
bed of their muskets and rifles, and left perfectly defenceless. 
Prominent citizens were arrested now, by armed bands, fre- 
quently at midnight, in the bosom of their families, without 
notice, and carried before some Provost Marshal, or some up- 
start official, tried before a military commission, hastily got 
together, ex parte, without evidence, and with scarcely the sem- 
blance of a charge, sometimes with no charge at all, and then 
hurried off to the loathsome dungeons of Tuscaloosa, Ala., or 
Madison, Ga., or Richmond, or Saulsbury, or Knoxville, or 
Nashville, there to lie in the midst of unutterable filth and 
vermin, to pine away and famish upon their scanty and miser- 
able fare, and sometimes to die in utter despair. I, myself, 
have known the facts of whicli I speak. Men as reputable as 
any in East Tennessee have suffered in this way. I will men- 
tion one case. Mr. Pickens had been a representative in the 
State Legislature ; he was a man of heart, a man of soul, a 
man of intelligence, a man who was popular among all our 
people, a good citizen, and true and loyal to his country; but 
he had been ostracised, and in compliance with the order of 
Benjamin at Richmond was seized, without charges, carried 
South, and in the loathsome dungeons of Tuscaloosa, Ala., he 
paid the forfeit of his life, and became a martyr to the glorious 
cause of human liberty and the Union of these States. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Sir, such instances are not rare in our community. The 
prisons of the South have been filled with the best men of East 



17 

Tennessee ; and it is said by those who know, that not less than 
five thousand — think of it, fellow-citizens! — not less than five 
thousand of the men of East Tennessee, because they were true 
to their country, because they loved the flag that emblematized 
all that they held dearest on earth, because they would not bow 
the knee to Baal, nor receive upon their necks the yoke of the 
king of the South, have been snatched from their homes by the 
hand of power, and borne away into captivity. The railroad 
bridge near my home was burned, and parties charged with 
burning it were arrested, tried by a drumhead court-martial, 
according to the order of Benjamin, and hung; and I speak but 
the truth when I tell yon, that at least two of those gentlemen 
— for they were gentlemen, honorable, high-minded, intelligent, 
moral, upright citizens of the community in which they lived — 
two, at least, I say, of those who were thus ignominionsly hung, 
and their bodies left dangling in the air, knew not that they 
were sentenced until they were brought within sight of the gib- 
bet upon which they w T ere to expiate with their lives that offence 
which they had committed against the Southern Confederacy, 
of being true to their own government! 

Thus affairs moved on, and Terror shook her black banner 
over all our country ; and, to make the reign of terror still more 
fearful, a legion of tawny Indians, whose forefathers had been 
wont, in other times, to tomahawk and scalp the citizens of our 
section of the country, were brought from their mountain re- 
gions, with their painted faces, and wild, unearthly whoops, and 
put upon the track of our remaining young men. But be it 
ever remembered, to their credit, that these poor, half civilized 
Cherokees were less savage on the trail than their pale-faced 
companions in arms .[applause] ; and the people, after the first 
terror had subsided, and they found the kindness of heart that 
existed in the bosoms of these Indians, preferred a thousand 
Cherokee Indians in their neighborhood to one captain's com- 
pany of rebel soldiers. 

Several regiments of citizens had now volunteered, and hun- 
dreds more had been compelled by coercion to enter the rebel 
lines, and to serve in the rebel army ; and about this time, Aug. 
1863, Jeff, Davis made another call, running up to forty. five 
years of age ; and at the same time. Gov. Harris issued an addi- 
2 



18 



tional call, embracing all up to fifty-five years of age ; so yon 
see that all our population from eighteen years of age up to 
fifty-five were called for by these several authorities. But 
hark ! the drum and spirit-stirring fife are heard ; and the starry 
banners, the gleaming bayonets, and federal bine uniforms of 
Burnside's hosts are seen on the hills of the Cumberland as 
they hasten to the redemption and relief of our suffering people. 
The army of Gen. Bragg had been, just previously, compelled to 
evacuate Chattanooga, and Gen. Eosecrans occupied that ex- 
tremity of the State ; our young men at once sprung from their 
hiding places and their coverts in the mountains, and rallied to 
the standard of their country, under the lead of the gallant 
champions of the Union, and our mothers, sisters, wives, and 
old men, were left alone to occupy our homes. To-day, fellow- 
citizens, more than 25,000 East r Jennesseaus wear the uniform 
and bear the arms of your country and ray country. [Prolonged 
and enthusiastic applause.] "While I would not disparage any 
other section of these United States in its patriotism, I must say 
for my section, that in the midst of all their sufferings and 
trials, privations and perils, they have furnished to the support 
of our government more men, in proportion to their population 
— more than two to one — than any other section of the country, 
[Applause.] 

As Gen. Burnside, in September, marched with his conquer- 
ing hosts towards Upper East Tennessee, the rebel army 
retreated before him ; but as they went, thinking, perhaps, that 
they were seeing the last of East Tennessee, they seized upon 
the property, the live stock, especially, of the Union farmers, 
all over the country, where they could find it, and carried it off 
with them. From that moment the work of devastation went 
on with accelerated momentum. Many times have the Union 
and rebel armies traversed the whole length of East Tennessee, 
exhausting the country all around for current supplies, and, at 
every moment, widening the track of ruin that they left behind 
them. In the track of the armies came robbers, who found con- 
venient hiding-places and rallying points in the mountains that 
skirt our valleys, and came down and claimed their share of the 
property of our plundered people; and thus our barns and stables, 
our cribs and dwellings, were entered and robbed, and our people 



19 

left utterly destitute. The very wearing apparel of our womon 
and children was seized by these ruffians, and carried out of our 
houses. Our blankets and bed-clothing, everything that was 
calculated to render the soldiers more comfortable, was seized 
by the strong hand, and carried away. Our tanneries shared 
the same fate. They had all been compelled, in the reign of 
the rebels, to contribute sixty per cent, of their leather to the 
government for the shoeing of their soldiers ; but now, when 
they were retreating from the State, they soized all the leather 
in the vats, and bore it away, leaving our old men, women and 
children, to meet the rigors of the passing winter bare-footed, as 
well as almost naked. 

Believe me, fellow-citizens, East Tennessee has drunk the full 
cup of suffering, and nothing seems left her now but to drain its 
bitterness to the very dregs# She has sacrificed everything 
but loyalty and honor , she has suffered everything but dis- 
honor and death ; and now destitution and famine, followed by 
despair and death, are trampling upon the thresholds of her sad 
homes, are entering their very doors, ready to consummate the 
sacrifice and complete the suffering. But, thank God, through 
all her sufferings, she has been faithful. Persuasions, threats, 
insults, imprisonments, wounds, stripes, privations, chains, con- 
fiscations, gibbets, and military murders, the clash of arms, the 
" terribleness of armies with banners," and all the combined 
and concentrated horrors of internecine war marshalled upon 
her battle-torn bosom, and hurling sorrow and ruin into all her 
homes, have never corrupted her loyalty, nor driven her a soli- 
tary line from her devotion to the government of our fathers. 
[Great applause.] Left unprotected, when she ought to have 
been protected by the government that she loved, interior and 
isolated, disarmed before she could organize, she was seized and 
pinioned by a power that overrode all law, and trampled con- 
stitutional liberty under its feet. Choked down, under a reign 
of terror black as the night of Robespierean rule in Paris, her 
proud neck has felt the heel of a despotism more heartless and 
crushing than the power of an autocracy. Her loyal people, 
because they could not do otherwise, have submitted, for more 
than two dreadful years, to a bondage their inmost hearts have 
abhorred — a bondage that fetters the soul, and seals the lips, 



20 

and all but closes the door of hope. "We have breathed but to 
live, and lived but to pray, " Oh, Lord, how long ?" Thank 
God ! the prayer of the oppressed is answered, and East Ten- 
nessee, in answer to our prayers, is almost free, and the grand 
old banner floats once more triumphantly, gloriously, over our 
mountain-girt home, and there may it float forever ! [Loud 
applause.] 

" Flag of our hearts, onr symbol and our trust, 
Though traitors trample thy bright folds in dust, 
Though vile ambition, dark rebellion's lust, 

Conspire to tear thee down ; 
Mill'ons of loyal lips thy folds caress, 
Millions of loyal hearts thy stars do bless, 
Millions of loyal hands will round thee press, 
To guard thy old renown." [Cheers.] 

■ 

With this history of the people of East Tennessee before yon, 
it is for you to determine whether this brave and patriotic pop- 
ulation shall be suffered to fall and perish in their devotion to 
our common country, by the blighting hand of famine, or 
whether your philanthropy and benevolence shall interpose to 
shield and protect and guard and save them. East Tennessee, 
my native East Tennessee, has sacrificed all she had for the 
country. Her horses, her mules, her flocks and herds, her 
cattle upon a thousand hills, have all been offered up ; her corn 
and wheat are all consumed ; her young men — all who have not 
perished in the camp or on the battle-field — are now swelling the 
ranks of your victorious armies ; and, now our matrons and 
maidens, our old men and little children, our soldiers' widows 
and orphaned babes, are all bound and upon the altar ; already 
the sacrificial knife is uplifted ; it trembles in the hand of 
Famine ; — may God save my people, and avert the stroke, in 
this their day of sorrow and trial ! 

While the scourge of this cruel war has thus blighted and 
blasted, devastated and ruined East Tennessee, the land of 
the free, the home of the loyal and brave, it has scarcely 
been felt north of Mason and Dixon's line. On the contrary, 
a degree of prosperity, such as you have never experienced, 
has poured into the lap of the people of the North and West 
boundless wealth. The labors of your agriculturists have been 



21 

succeeded by the blessings of a gracious Providence ; your 
mechanics have received remunerative prices for all the labor 
they could perform ; your merchants have seen their trade prosper 
beyond all parallel ; your manufacturers have expanded and en- 
larged their operations in every branch of manufacture ; and 
your mineral region is pouring forth, from the bowels of the 
earth, uncounted wealth. Whether you will make this vast in- 
crease of wealth a source of blessing to yourselves, your chil- 
dren, your country, and the world, is a problem that is left for 
you to solve. The desolations and ruin of this unnatural and 
cruel war have opened a wide field for your philanthropy and 
benevolence. Will you enter it ? — will you sow it ? Will you 
cultivate it? If so, an abundant crop of blessings will fall upon 
your basket and upon your store, upon your homes and hearths, 
and, above all, upon your hearts. [Applause.] 

When starving Ireland was weeping over her famishing 
children, as they drooped and died in the remorseless grasp 
of famine, her wail of woe was heard across the wide waste of 
waters, and America wept in sympathy with Ireland ; but 
while sh<3 lifted up, with one hand, their dying heads, with the 
other she ministered nourishment and life to the perishing 
children of the Emerald Isle. A nobler example of national mag- 
nanimity and Christian charity can scarely be produced from 
the annals of the world. Yet these people were the subjects of 
a foreign government, and were strangers beyond the sea. The 
cry of suffering now comes to the American ear and falls upon 
the American heart from the famishing lips of our own people ; 
and East Tennessee, from the summits of her rock-ribbed moun- 
tains, with one hand beckons to her rich and and powerful 
and flourishing sisters of the North, and with a bursting heart, 
and tearful eye points with the other to the desolation that 
hangs like a pall of death over her forty thousand ruined 
homes in the valleys below. Will those sisters prove angels 
of blessing and of mercy, and bring peace and happiness and 
hope to those desolate homes again, or will they leave their 
past munificence alone to illustrate and adorn and glorify their 
history? That you, fellow-citizens, do sympathize with my 
people, and that you are ready to open your hands for their 
relief, I cannot doubt ; , and especially when I remember that 



22 

the appeal of the suffering and the sorrowful, the afflicted and 
the bereaved of earth, has never been made in vain to your 
magnanimous and benevolent people. Sir, the question is re- 
duced to one of life or death. General Grant wrote to General 
Robert Anderson a few days ago, as I learned from him, saying 
that there were three alternatives for the people of East Ten- 
nessee ; one was, to be carried out of their section to where 
they could find something to eat ; another was, that provisions 
should be carried to them ; and the last was, if neither of the 
others were adopted, that the people of East Tennessee must 
perish in the midst of their mountains. Sir, I do not believe 
you intend that these people shall perish. I will not believe it 
till I see their bones bleaching among their native hills. [Great 
applause.] I believe you have hearts that palpitate in unison 
with their hearts ; I believe you have hands that will open for 
their relief. 

Sir, the very soil of East Tennessee, from the beetling crags of 
the White Top Mountain to the battle-scarred summit of the 
Lookout, is henceforth classic ground ; every neighborhood has 
witnessed the conflict of arms; almost every county hasfeltt he 
shock of battle; and some of the most memorable and bloody 
struggles that history will record have been fought on her 
bosom. The red sea of war has rolled its fiery billows over all 
her valleys, and rivulets of blood from her slippery hill-sides 
have swelled the tide of death. The lines of fire have illumined 
her midnight heavens, from Bristol-on-the Line to the summits of 
the Cumberland, like the quick, lurid flashings of the tempest. 
The roar of trampling war-steeds spurred to battle, the clash of 
sabres, the sharp rattle of musketry, and the solemn thunder of 
artillery, mingling with the shrieks of the wounded, the yells of 
the vanquished, and the shouts of the victorious, have aroused 
the slumbering echoes in all her remotest solitudes. Rosecrans 
met disaster there, and thousands of brave hearts ceased to beat 
on the mournful field. But, near the same ground, the hero of 
twenty victories won back the goddess to our country's standard, 
and the unpretending Grant led the hosts of Freedom to triumph 
again. (Vociferous applause.) 

The impetuous Sherman, along the slopes and summit of 
Mission Ridge, leads his brave legions to victory at the cannon's 



23 

mouth ; the cool and dauntless Thomas, with his gallant vete- 
rans, flashes terror into the hearts of the foe ; but it is reserved 
for fighting Joe Hooker and his splendid corps, following the 
flight of the American eagle, to scale the steep sides of Lookout 
Mountain, snatch victory from the rebels on its lofty summit, 
and re-echo in pealing thunders, above the clouds, the shouts of 
triumph from the armies below. (Great applause.) 

The investment of Knoxville by Longstreet, the masterly 
strategy with which Potter deceived and out-mauouvered the 
rebel chief, the siege, the various assaults and sallies, the mur- 
derous charge and bloody repulse, the daring attempt upon Fort 
Saunders, where young Benjamin won immortal honor by his 
undaunted daring, the deadly conflict, the disastrous retreat, 
have given many a name to a proud immortality — 

■** And Manson, Potter, White, 
And Parke, are dashing through the fight; 
Ferrero, Hascall, Carter, rush 
Secession's hydra head to crush; 
And waving high his glittering sword, 
The Morgan-tamer Shackelford 
Pants to hegin the steeple-chase, 
And win again immortal race !" 

The gallant Saunders, with his new-born star, 
Gleams for a moment through the cloud of war, 
Yields, the young hero, on the bloody sod, 
His name to glory, and kis soul to God I 

■" While Burnside proved, on sea and land, 
Full worthy of his high command, 
With genial, but undaunted soul, 
Arrays and well directs the whole ; 
Moves on his veteran army corps, 
And fadeless laurels plucks once more. 
Hail ! chieftain of the rescue, hail 1 
A saddened land shall cease to wail 
While 'comrades' give thee just renown, 
And grateful States with honor crown: 
Mothers shall teach their babes thy name, 
And prattling childhood lisp thy fame ; 
Our hills shall clap their joyous hands, 
And shout for thee and thy brave bands 
The voice of age its thanks express, 
And unborn generations bless." 



94 

Mingled forever in the historic page that perpetuates their 
heroic deeds, as on the bloody fields where they won their fame, 
are the sons of every loyal State in the Union. Our valleys and 
hill-sides entomb the remains of the slain patriots of every State 
who died there for their country ; together they fought, united 
they fell ; the same sod that was enriched by their blood, ming- 
ling as it flowed, grows green over the bosoms that' rest, side by 
side, in the same grave ; they died under the same starry ban- 
ner in defence of the same great country, and their brave souls 
together were heralded to the spirit world by the loud thunders 
of battle. They sleep in East Tennessee's bosom, beside her own 
murdered sons. The maidens of the mountains will plant flow- 
ers on their graves, and water them with tears ; generations of 
patriots will honor their memories; the everlasting mountains 
will sentinel their dust ; and the sighing winds of autumn, and 
the bright waters of the valleys, shall murmur their requiem 
forever. 

By the sacrament of fire, by the baptism of blood, East Ten- 
nessee is consecrated to liberty and the Union. Neglected by 
the Government, anathematized by Davis and his myrmidons — 
exhausted by friends — pillaged by enemies — all battle-scarred 
and bleeding, her tattered garments dyed red with the life- 
blood of her slaughtered sons — ruin and destitution all around 
her, and gaunt famine clutching at the vitals of her little chil- 
dren — there she is, pierced with anguish, and scalding tear- 
drops are on her pale cheek ; crowned with sorrows, sublimely, 
grandly beautiful, she sits like a queen in the midst of her 
mountains — the queen of a desolate realm. She is my mother ! 
I am proud of that mother, and I would rather write myself a 
son of East Tennessee, clothed in the bloody tatters her loyalty 
has entailed upon her, than to flourish and luxuriate in the 
wealth of a prince — with the brand of " traitor" stamped upon 
my brow. [Loud applause.] She is the sister of the great 
States of the North and West — the daughter of the nation — and 
her devotion to the nation has cost her all she has lost, and all 
she is suffering now. But who is it, men of New York, ladies 
of the Empire State — who is it that challenges your sympathy 
and demands your aid ? Not the strong men of the land, not 
our young men — No : they are all gone — 



25 

" Their thousands swell the bannered hosts 
Of which a mighty nation boasts." 

They are struggling beside your New York boys, fighting and 
dying with them for the nation's life, for our common country. 
(Applause.) It is the fathers and mothers, the wives and chil- 
dren of these heroic mountaineers — who call to you, from the 
brink of the grave, for help. Their cry is, " We have suffered 
all, sacrificed all, given all we had — and we would do it all 
over again, if necessary, for our love of country : and now, shall 
we give up our lives also ?" Fellow-citizens of New York, you 
cannot, you will not, you dare not permit it. Oh ! then reach 
out your strong hand and save them — for a nobler race breathes 
not on earth's broad surface, and they are your brethren. Penn- 
sylvania has heard — Philadelphia has answered, and her noble 
benefaction is already on the way to the scene of destitution ; 
Maine has listened, with tearful eye and trembling heart, to 
the tale of woe, and sends a generous contribution to the suf- 
fering : and Massachusetts, with a liberality that illustrates her 
largeness of heart, has, through her noble-souled Committee, at 
Boston, drawn out a subscription, reaching already to more 
than $60,000, and averaging still, more than $2,000 per day. 
Will the Empire State, will the Metropolitan City — that has a 
single street operating a capital of more than $300,000,000, and 
a world-wide commerce concentrating at her gates — stand 
aloof in the noble work of saving from the blight of famine the 
destitute sufferers of East Tennessee ? No, sir: No ! I know 
your charity and benevolence have been, and are continually 
taxed, by the demands of this cruel war, and you have volun- 
tarily and cheerfully met the demands. Have you lost any- 
thing, have you been impoverished, in purse or in heart, by 
giving for charity ? Nay : but prospered and enlarged in your 
ability to give. Many millions have been contributed to those 
noble Christian enterprises, the Sanitary and Christian Com- 
missions, and you are preparing now to endow one of them, in 
this great city, with at least a million more. God bless you, in 
your noble purpose, and crown your efforts with the most am- 
ple success. But oh ! ought you not, likewise, to respond 
promptly, adequately, magnanimously, to the just claims East 
Tennessee presents this day upon your patriotism and honor, not 



less than upon your philanthropy and Christianity ? If East Ten- 
nessee is weak, poor, desolated, charred by fire, blasted by the 
sword, pillaged of her property, wasted of all her substance, be- 
reft of her sons, and pallid with hunger — it is because she has 
loved the Union, adhered to the Constitution, and hated trea- 
son ; because she has been faithful to the Government, and 
ready to die for the flag ; our Uuion, cemented by the blood of 
our fathers ; our Constitution, devised by their wisdom : our 
Government, the Constitution in action ; the Union exerting its 
functions ; our flag, the symbol of our liberty, the emblem of 
our nationality, the glory of cur past, our pride of the present, 
our hope and promise of the future. (Applause.) Now, if in 
the maintenance and defence of our common right and prop- 
erty in this common heritage, East Tennessee has lost, and 
sacrificed all her individual property, and all her means of 
living, is it demanding largely of your sense of mere equity, 
and justice, to ask you to save hee people from starva- 
tion, till they can have time and opportunity to make bread ? 
But, sir, my people, not only want bread, they desire peace. 
Every consideration of humanity, patriotism, charity, — the hopes 
of mankind, — the principles of Christianity, — the interests and 
prosperity, of the world, even of the rebellious South demand 
peace, — honorable lasting peace. I am not here to say hard 
things of the Southern people, — they are my brethren by 
blood — the friends of my youth, the companions of my riper years. 
I love them still, and I thank God, that I have a heart alive to 
the wide distinction between the offence and the offender. 
With unutterable loathing, and abhorrence, I hate the sin, — but 
the sinner is my brother still. This horrible rebellion I abom- 
inate, with unspeakable detestation, but the rebel is my kin for 
all that, — and him I would subdue, reclaim, and save, if possi- 
ble. Besides, sir, large masses of these people, I know to be, — 
though wearing the harness of rebellion, as true, at heart, as 
you, — who have never yet been tried in the furnace of a des- 
potism. From the beginning, they have had an iron hand upon 
them, — they have breathed an atmosphere of terrorism, such as 
must be felt to be known. That terrorism has compelled, co- 
erced thousands of Southern men into the rebel army, — and 
"chains them there to-day, — while thousands of others are, vol- 



27 

nntarily, there, because intelligent, ingenious traitor leaders 
have misled them, with gilded falsehoods. I hope and pray that 
the day of their deliverance will soon come. These, thus con- 
strained, and thus misled, ought to have peace. Sir, the horri- 
ble prospects of the beautiful South, as well as the memory of 
its past prosperity, and wealth, and influence, — and the death- 
like desolation that overshadows it now, — the seas of blood 
spilled there, — the ocean of tears Avept there, by widowed 
women and orphaned children, — all these demand peace. 
But how are you to have peace 1 That is the great question. 
There are but two methods of obtaining peace that I can think 
of. One is, to concede all the rebel leaders demand, — that is, 
the recognition of the Southern Confederacy, as an independent 
Government, — consequently the disintegration and dismember- 
ment of the United States, — and, of course, the remanding of 
the Border States, with their loyal inhabitants, — together with 
the bones of your heroes, that fell in battle, to their lawful pos- 
session forever. This is one of the ways by which we can get 
peace. Are you ready to accept, will you adopt it ? (Cries of 
" No.") Will you permit it ? (Cries of " Never, never.") Must 
we, then, war on forever 1 (Voices, " Yes.") No, my friends, 
I will tell you a better plan. Let us bring this dreadful war to 
a close the other way, — the only other way, by fighting it out 
with overwhelming ^and irresistible numbers. (Applause.) 
Fight it out on its merits and demerits, and let every other 
question, even the " Negro," alone. Inevitable destiny governs 
that question, and God is destiny, — let us leave that question to 
His wisdom, and rest assured, He will settle it all right. God 
rules, and He has brought the counsels of the wise, of all par- 
ties, to naught, on this question. For forty years, some of your 
greatest men, in the pulpit, — at the press, and in the political 
world, have been trying to tear down slavery. What had they 
all accomplished before this war? Had they even abraded the 
surface of the " Institution." Believe me, in 140 years, their 
labors would have borne the same result, — leaving the Con- 
stitution untouched. 

Well, there was another party, down South, that was for 
preserving it, because they held it to be a right, under the Con- 
stitution, — because it represented a large portion of the capital, 



28 

as well as the labor of the South. I was one of that party. We 
said, preserve the Union and you protect slavery, destroy the 
Union, and all its bulwarks are gone. AVell, Gentlemen, this 
party failed. Another party, there, assumed to be the exclusive 
guardians and custodians of the Institution. They called us by 
way of reproach , Republicans, Abolitionists, Lincolnites. These 
men declared, that neither the Constitution, nor the flag, were 
a sufficient protection to slavery, and that it could only be saved 
by taking it out of the Union — therefore, they tore the Constitu- 
tion into fragments, trampled it under their unhallowed feet, 
and threw themselves and slavery beyond the protection of the 
flag. This party has been defeated also. And now, in reference 
to slavery, God's finger, through the instrumentality of these 
traitor leaders, writes " Tekel" on the wall. (Applause.) 
Let the blame or the glory attach where it properly belongs. 
The abolitionist North failed to even wound it, the Union men 
of the South could not save it, — but Providence has permitted 
the madness and folly of Jefferson Davis and his allies in three 
years, to free more negroes than all the abolitionists North could 
have liberated in one thousand, years. They designed to per- 
petuate, and have maimed and crippled the institution, (which 
they loved better than their country,) I believe, unto death, 
and, in their own fall, they have dragged tens of thousands of 
innocent and good men into the same ruin with themselves. 
For myself I have to say, I am not a Republican, nor an Aboli- 
tionist, but a veteran Whig, of the Clay-Webster school. (Cheers.) 
But I have this much of true Democracy in me, — that I have 
formed my love of country upon the model of, not Webster and 
Clay alone, but of the illustrious hero whose ashes repose at the 
Hermitage — Andrew Jackson. (Applause.) With that sort of 
Democracy, and all other parties, and isms, that love their 
country more than they love any party, I am willing to strike 
hands, under the banner of my country, and march side by side 
with them, to victory. (Cheers.) Having sacrificed all I pos- 
sessed, but a few negroes and my land, I am ready to sacrifice 
these, also, if need be, for the restoration of the Union, and the 
perpetuation of Constitutional liberty. 

But I said we must have peace, and was pointing out the only 
honorable way left us of obtaining it. Make our armies so 



29 

strong as to trample, crush, and smother out the last spark of 
treason, and rebellion-in-arms, anywhere within the territorial 
limits of the nation. (Immense applause.) If you have any 
treason lurking here at the North or in the great West, frown 
it clown with public opinion, — crush it out at the ballot-box, — 
everywhere let the names of the traitors be, as they will be in 
history, a hissing and a by-word : 

" Be every false detested name 
Condemned to everlasting fame I" 

"Whether his tomb be found North or South of Mason and 
Dixon's line — 

" Shame and dishonor sit 
By his grave, ever, 
Blessing shall hallow it — 
Never, no never I" 

Not by little armies of 400,000 or 500,000 can you destroy 
this monster Rebellion. Its boundary is too large, its empire 
too great. At first you called out 75,000 men. You were ex- 
cusable. You had not grasped the magnitude of the movement. 
But three years of experience ought to enlighten men. Our 
generals have met the foe on many a field, they have tested 
their mettle, they have measured their strength, they have felt 
their prowess, they have tried their courage, they kno w they 
fight well, — they ought to know that nothing can break and 
beat them but overwhelming force. Then nothing remains to 
be done but to send men enough to whip them. (Applause.) 
But have you men to draw upon ? Why, sir, it seems to me 
there are men enough in this single city to double all your 
armies. Your thoroughfares are crowded clay and night, your 
streets are thronged everywhere I go, — which way I turn is a 
continuous tide of men ; and if Davis could have one sweep here 
with his conscription in New York, he would not ask a recruit 
for three years to come ; there is a perfect human avalanche 
rolling on forever. Now is the time, sir, while we have but 
one enemy on hand. By-and-by, we may have to settle with 
France. Next year we may have a trouble with England. Then 
while the coast is clear, and peace remains outside, we ought to 
clean up the Rebellion and be ready for the stormy or the peace- 
ful future. Let us stop speculating, stop wrangling over politics, 



30 



stop making Presidents, and arranging for fat jobs and big 
contracts, and make it the serious, earnest, business of rulers, 
and people, army and navy, to conquer a lasting and a glorious 
peace at home. Sir, our Ship of State is in perilous seas — Scylla 
a-port, Charybdis a-lea — breakers ahead and reefs all round ; 
there are pirates in sight, and mutineers on board, and the ter- 
rible hurricane howls o'er the sea. 

Shall the crew of that noble vessel, freighted with our wives 
and children and loved ones, freighted with our hopes for all 
time to come, freighted with the prospects of liberty and the 
hopes of freedom of all earth's inhabitants that know or have 
heard of us — shall her crew, in the midst of this storm, fall to 
fighting as to who shall next command the ship ? [Applause.} 
Oh, is it not the part of patriotism for every man, in this dark 
hour, to come and strengthen the heart of the helmsman to stand 
at his post 1 [Enthusiastic and prolonged applause.] And no 
matter what questions may separate and divide that crew, is it 
not their duty to stand in the midst of the storm, and say to the 
helmsman — " Guide our bark safely through ! Here we are, 
at your back, and we will stand by you through the storm !" 
[Renewed applause.] Sir, if we do this, the vessel will soon 
pass between Scylla and Charybdis; she will leap over the 
breakers and the reefs, and when we get out upon a calm sea, 
and upon a prosperous voyage, then, and not until then, can we 
settle the questions that we may choose to raise. 

" sail on, Ship of State ! 

" Sail on, Union strong and great 1 

" Humanity with all its fears, 

" With all the hopes of future years, 

" Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 

" In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 

" In spite of false lights on the shore, 

" Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 

" Our hearts, our hopes, are still with thee ; 

"Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 

" Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears, 

" Are all with thee — are all with thee !" 

We look behind us and seethe loveliness of peace; now that 
she is gone we remember a thousand winning charms we never 
perceived when she made our country an Eden, our homes, 
even the humblest, a Paradise. "We look before us, she is fled 



31 

and the grim visaged monster war, armftd with fire-brand and 
sword, and every implement of death, has planted himself 
square between us and the dove-eyed angel peace, whom 
we so ardently love, and long to embrace. If we would win 
and recapture peace, we must, first, conquer and bind the 
monster between us and her. Then let her sweet image gleam 
upon the bristling points of fifteen hundred thousand bayonets 
[tremendous and long-continued applause] ; let it blaze upon the 
glittering steel of five hundred thousand swords ; let it leap from 
the mouths of ten thousand cannon, and the echo of that thun- 
der will bring peace to every home and house and heart through- 
out the length and breadth of our reunited country. [Hearty 
applause.] When the atmosphere is damp and filled with ma- 
laria, and death moves in every breeze, then, sir, what do we 
want ? We want the keen flash of heaven's electricity, we 
want the live thunder, rolling from mountain top to mountain 
top ; and then all is purified, all is calm, all is serene and 
healthful once more. [Cheers and shouts.] 

It is in mercy's name I ask for this. I can only tolerate war, 
because it is the shortest, most direct, and only way, to honor- 
able and lasting peace ; and I beg for war, on the grandest scale, 
in order to make peace sure, beyond a doubt. Give us the 
largest amount of physical force, in the face of the enemy, ready 
to fall upon and destroy them, that they may not be destroyed, 
and fill untimely graves. [Loud applause.] 

Sir, I trust the time is coming, and will soon be here, when 
this cruel war will be over. I trust the day is soon coming 
which is to prove but the dawn of that prosperity which is in 
reservation for our glorious country in the near and far-off fu- 
ture, when, reunited, we shall sit under our own vine and fig 
tree, everywhere, and none shall make us afraid ; when the 
watchword of the sentinels upon Liberty's watch tower, as it is 
uttered upon the coast of the Atlantic, shall be echoed all 
along the line, until the last man hears and returns the saluta- 
tion by the shore of the distant Pacific. 

" Our Union, ordained by Jehovah ! 

"Man sets not the fiat aside ; 
"As well cleave asunder the -welkin, 

" As the one mighty system divide 



32 



"The grand Mississippi sounds ever, 

"From pine down to palm, the decree ; 
" The spindle, the coin, and the cotton, 

" One paean shout, Union to thee !" 

Having already trespassed upon your patience too long [cries 
of "go on"], I must close my remarks. 

I thank you, for your very polite attention, and will express 
my earnest hope that you will keep what I have said, in your 
memory, think upon it, and act. 

Gen. W. 3v. Strong: — Mr. Chairman, it is deeply to be re- 
gretted that more of onr fellow citizens have not had an oppor- 
tunity of listening to the recitals, which we have heard this stormy 
evening. The touching and eloquent appeal from the distin- 
guished speaker who has just taken his seat, must sensibly 
affect all hearts. We cannot consent that he shall retire from 
this city, under the impresion that this is to be the last he is to 
hear from this appeal to us. I therefore beg to move, that 
the gentleman who have had charge of the inauguration of this 
meeting, be requested to take such further steps, as, may be 
proper to enable the citizens of New York to make a fitting 
response to the appeal, which has been to-night so truthfully, so 
touchingly, and so eloquently made by Col. Taylor, of East- 
Tennessee. 

The motion was carried by acclamation. 

The Chairman : — All who wear the uniform of the republic 
when this war is over, must be entitled to its civil and politi- 
cal rights. (Applause.) The distinguished gentleman has ad- 
verted to the fact, that he was a member of the old Whig 
party. I desire to say, that I continued a member of the old 
national democratic party, until this threatened overthrow 
of the Governement took place, and then I trampled party be- 
neath my feet. (Cheers.) And here I ask my friend to say to 
this meeting, with his hand pledged in mine, whether, if it 
becomes necessary to sweep slavery from the Union, to save 
the Country, he, as a Tennessean, is not willing it shall be 
done. 

Col Taylor : — (putting his hand in that of the chairman)— 
Yes, slavery and everything else in the way — -if it stand in the 
way of the nation's integrity and existence — let it go down for- 
ever. 



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